Accused murderer Basil Borutski painted himself the victim today.
In a five-hour police interview played for court, Borutski explained how he was framed by the very women he's accused of killing.
This is the first time we've actually heard from Basil Borutski. He has refused to say a word so far since his court case into this triple murder started.
But he had plenty to say to the police officer interviewing him the day after the murders.
24 hours after a killing rampage through Renfrew County that took the lives of three beautiful women; Natalie Warmerdam, Anatastasia Kuzyk and Carol Culleton and 12 hours after an arrest in the west-end Ottawa neighbourhood of Kinburn, Detective Sergent Caley O'Neill sat down for a five hour interview with the man accused of killing those women. It was 9;30 a.m., September 23, 2015.
59-year-old Basil Borutski is no stranger to the criminal justice system, convicted of offences against two of those 3 women. But Borutski is playing the victim here with O'Neill.
A lot of what we're seeing in the interview is about Borutski's disdain for the police and the justice system and what he keeps calling “malicious prosecution,” how he, an innocent man in his eyes, was framed by the very women he's accused of killing.
“I didn't murder anyone,” he tells O'Neill in that police interview. O'Neill answers that he killed 3 women and questions why Borutski keeps making a distinction between killing and murdering.
"Thou shalt not murder," Borutski answers.
To which O'Neill replies, "I think the phrase is actually "Thou shalt not kill."
"You’re wrong," Borutski snaps back. "You better start reading the bible and find an old version before they changed it."
O’Neill then says, "The question out of my mouth isn't “Did you kill these girls?” I’m not asking that. It's a moot point,” he says. My only concern is why? What did these women did to make you so angry that you decided to kill them?"
Borutski tells O'Neill if the community really wanted to know, they should start an independent inquiry,
"Because Basil Borutski is a kind, caring, God-fearing human being."
Down the street from the courthouse, a group calling itself “Because Wilno” is holding a vigil in front of the Human Rights Monument, to support the families of the victims.
“It’s important to show solidarity with the victims and other women living with this kind of violence,” says Michelle Lemieux, with the Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre, “and to put pressure on the courts to say this is not okay.”
“We will be watching very closely and calling for accountability as to how this escalation of violence seems to slip through the cracks time and time again,” adds Holly Campbell, the organizer of Because Wilno.
Before court broke for the day today, Borutski, in that taped interview, quoted his father saying "People get caught in lies. You can't get caught in the truth." The trial continues Friday.